Rob's Album of The Week: Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker & Yim Yames’ New Multitudes

Through unrecorded written lyrics by the iconic Woody Guthrie, Son Volt’s Jay Farrar, Centro-matic’s Will Johnson, Varnaline’s Anders Parker and My Morning Jacket’s Yim Yames (pronounced Jim James) have come together to put out an album in tribute and celebration of what would have been Guthrie’s 100th birthday on June 14th called New Multitudes. Chosen by Guthrie’s daughter Nora to add instrumentation to her father’s lyrics, Farrar, Johnson, Parker and Yames focused on the lyrics Guthrie wrote during his early songwriting years when he was based in Los Angeles during the Great Depression. 

Nora originally gave Farrar the opportunity to choose which lyrics he wanted to write music to through the archives of The Woody Guthrie Foundation located on West 57th Street in New York City. After looking through over 3,000 handwritten lyrics, Farrar chose to write music from the period from when Guthrie moved from his home state of Oklahoma with thousands of others to the West Coast in search of jobs during the infamous dust bowl. 

A fantastic album that is as American as apple pie, it kicks off with the track “Hoping Machine” that has Farrar starting the song with the lyrics “Don’t let anything knock your props out from under you, always keep your mind clear, let your plans come out of mistakes.....” The opus also features steady piano keys and harmonious chords alternating between the acoustic and electric guitar riffs.

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Other tracks I enjoy are “My Revolutionary Mind”, which features Yames singing about the agony of loneliness and the times when all you want is to hold somebody close, “Old L.A.” that has Parker singing about Guthrie’s time in the City of Angels, “Changing World” rings as true today as when Guthrie wrote the lyrics back in the late 30s, “Angel’s Blues” is a completely badass track about having a different girlfriend in every city, “VD City” features Johnson’s gritty voice accented by a down and dirty electric guitar that definitely makes me think that Neil Young could have written a similar song, and yes VD stands for exactly what you’re thinking. 

A week after the release of New Multitudes on February 28th, Farrar, Johnson, Parker & Yames will be embarking on a mini tour of the continental United States starting at the legendary Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco on March 6h and ending at The Paradise Rock Club in Boston on March 16th, a night I’m sure that any New England fan won’t want to miss. 

If you love Woody Guthrie along with loving some of the current folk-rock music that’s been produced over the past few years, why not kill two birds with one stone and grab a copy of New Multitudes? It’s a one of a kind record that’s as amazing as the man who wrote the lyrics.

- Rob Duguay